
Class JR^L^ 

Book .S^J.--. 

CopightN" 

COPVRIGHT DEPOSir. 



A BROWNING CALENDAR 



COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 



PUBLISHED, SEPTEMBER, 1904 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two GoDtes Received 
JUN 24 1904 

A Ooo.vnjrht Entry 

ft LASS Ol XXo. Na 

X ^ / 
COPY B 



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.^7 



D. B. UPDIKE, THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON 



:r: A ^;r<:f; ; 



~« * t , • * 



JANUARY 

JANUARY FIRST 

THEN life is — to wake not sleep, 
Rise and not rest, but press 
From earth's level where blindly creep 
Things perfeded, more or less, 
To the heaven's height, far and steep. 

REVERIE 

JANUARY SECOND 

It was eve, 
The second of the year, and oh so cold ! 
Ever and anon there flittered through the air 
A snow-flake, and a scanty couch of snow 
Crusted the grass-walk and the garden-mould. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

JANUARY THIRD 

Nine days o' the Birth-Feast did I pause and pray 
To enter into no temptation more. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

JANUARY FOURTH 

Be love your light and trust your guide. 

FERISHTAh's FANCIES 

[ • ] 



JANUARY FIFTH 

Let earth's old life once more enmesh us. 

ASOLANDO 

JANUARY SIXTH 

So did the star rise, soon to lead my step, 
Lead on, nor pause before it should stand still 
Above the House o' the Babe. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

JANUARY SEVENTH 

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. 
Or what 's a heaven for? 

ANDREA DEL SARTO 

JANUARY EIGHTH 

God gives each man one life, like a lamp, then 

gives 
That lamp due measure of oil: lamp lighted — 

hold high, wave wide 
Its comfort for others to share! once quench it, 

what help is left? 

DRAMATIC IDYLS 

JANUARY NINTH 

My business is not to remake myself, 

But make the absolute best of what God made. 

BISHOP BLOUGRAm's APOLOGY 

JANUARY TENTH 

Have people time and patience 
Nowadays for thoughts in rhyme? 

THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC 

[ ^ ] 



JANUARY ELEVENTH 

Work freely done should balance happiness 
Fully enjoyed. 

A FORGIVENESS 

JANUARY TWELFTH 

Govern for the many first, 
The poor mean multitude, all mouths and eyes: 
Bid the few, better favoured in the brain, 
Be patient, nor presume on privilege. 

PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU 

JANUARY THIRTEENTH 
Love should be absolute love, 
Faith is in fulness or naught. 

JOCOSERIA 

JANUARY FOURTEENTH 

Patience and self-devotion, fortitude. 
Simplicity and utter truthfulness. 

KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES 

JANUARY FIFTEENTH 

Ah, but the best 
Somehov^^ eludes us ever, still might be, 
And is not. 

SORDELLO 

JANUARY SIXTEENTH 

This world 's no blot for us. 
Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good. 

FRA LIPPO LIPPI 

[ 3 ] 



JANUARY SEVENTEENTH 

Bravely bustle through thy being, busy thee for ill 
or good. 

Reap this life's success or failure! Soon shall things 
be unperplexed 

And the right and wrong, now tangled, lie unrav- 
elled in the next. 

LA SAISIAZ 

JANUARY EIGHTEENTH 

Look up, advance! All now is possible. 
Fad's grandeur, no false dreaming! 

LURIA 

JANUARY NINETEENTH 

Be a man! 
Bear thine own burden, never think to thrust 
Thy fate upon another. 

balaustion's adventure 

JANUARY TWENTIETH 
A61 by the present life! 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 



JANUARY TWENTY-FIRST 

Who 's alive? 
Our men scarce seem in earnest now. 
Distinguished names! — but 'tis, somehow, 
As if they played at being names 
Still more distinguished, like the games 
Of children. 

WARING 

[ + ] 



JANUARY TWENTY-SECOND 

Evil or good may be better or worse 

In the human heart, but the mixture of each 

Is a marvel and a curse. 



GOLD HAIR 



JANUARY TWENTY-THIRD 
Good, to forgive; 
Best, to forget! 



LA SAISIAZ 



JANUARY TWENTY-FOURTH 

Oh, Day, if I squander a wavelet of thee, 

A mite of my twelve hours' treasure. 

The least of thy gazes or glances. 

My Day, if I squander such labour or leisure. 

Then shame fall on Asolo, mischief on me! 

PIPPA PASSES 

JANUARY TWENTY-FIFTH 

So, through the thunder comes a human voice 
Saying, "Oh heart I made, a heart beats here! 
Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself! 
Thou hast no power, nor mayst conceive of mine. 
But love I gave thee, with myself to love. 
And thou must love me who have died for thee!" 



JANUARY TWENTY-SIXTH 

One of God's large ones. 

[ 5 ] 



AN EPISTLE 



SORDELLO 



JANUARY TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Ere stars were thundergirt, or piled 

The heavens, God thought on me his child; 

Ordained a life for me, arrayed 

Its circumstances every one 

To the minutest. 

JOHANNES AGRICOLA IN MEDITATION 

JANUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Doing the King's vv^ork all the dim day long. 

HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY 

JANUARY TWENTY-NINTH 

Prison-roof shall break one day and Heaven beam 
o'erhead. 

THE INN ALBUM 

JANUARY THIRTIETH 

I find earth not grey but rosy, 
Heaven not grim but fair of hue. 

AT THE "mermaid" 

JANUARY THIRTY-FIRST 

Life is probation and the earth no goal 
But starting point of man. 

THE ring and the BOOK 



[6] 



FEBRUARY 



FEBRUARY FIRST 

REJOICE that man is hurled 
From change to change unceasingly, 
His soul's wings never furled! 

JAMES lee's wife 

FEBRUARY SECOND 

Praise and glory of white womanhood. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

FEBRUARY THIRD 

Man should be humble ; you are very proud: 
And God, dethroned, has doleful plagues for such ! 

PARACELSUS 

FEBRUARY FOURTH 

While small birds said to themselves 
What should soon be a6lual song. 

WARING 

FEBRUARY FIFTH 

Too much love there can never be. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 



[ 7 ] 



FEBRUARY SIXTH 

So sage and certain, frank and free, 
About what 's under lock and key — 
Man's soul! 

DRAMATIC IDYLS 

FEBRUARY SEVENTH 

Mankind is ignorant, and man am I! 
Call ignorance my sorrow, not my sin. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

FEBRUARY EIGHTH 

Life's a little thing! 
Such as it is, then, pass life pleasantly 
From day to night, nor once grieve all the while! 

ARISTOPHANES* APOLOGY 

FEBRUARY NINTH 

Men should, for love's sake, in love's strength be- 
lieve. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

FEBRUARY TENTH 

Oh, live and love worthily, bear and be bold ! 
Whom Summer made friends of, let Winter 
estrange ! 

JAMES lee's WIFE 

FEBRUARY ELEVENTH 

How thanklessly you view things! There the root 
Of the evil, source of the entire mistake: 
You see no worth i' the world, nature and life. 
Unless we change what is to what may be. 

PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU 

[ 8 ] 



FEBRUARY TWELFTH 

Love was the startling thing, the new: 
Love was the all-sufficient too; 
And seeing that, you see the rest. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

FEBRUARY THIRTEENTH 

He will live, nay, it pleaseth him to live 
So long as God please, and just how God please. 
He even seeketh not to please God more 
(Which meaneth, otherwise) than as God please. 

AN EPISTLE 

FEBRUARY FOURTEENTH 

For Spring bade the sparrows pair, 

And the boys and girls gave guesses. 
And stalls in our street looked rare 

With bulrush and water-cresses. 

YOUTH AND ART 

FEBRUARY FIFTEENTH 

Man is not God but hath God's end to serve, 
A master to obey, a course to take. 
Somewhat to cast off, somewhat to become? 
Grant this, then man must pass from old to new, 
From vain to real, from mistake to fa6l. 
From what once seemed good, to what now proves 
best. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

FEBRUARY SIXTEENTH 

And since I am but man, I dare not do God's work 
Until assured I see with God. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

[9] 



FEBRUARY SEVENTEENTH , 
Life means — learning to abhor 
The false, and love the true, truth 
Treasured snatch by snatch. 

FIFINE AT THE FAIR 

FEBRUARY EIGHTEENTH 

Oh, save that brow its virgin dimness, 
Keep that foot its lady primness. 
Let those ankles never sw^erve 
From their exquisite reserve. 

PIPPA PASSES 

FEBRUARY NINETEENTH 

I know thee, who hast kept my path, and made 
Light for me in the darkness, tempering sorrow 
So that it reached me like a solemn joy. 

PARACELSUS 

FEBRUARY TWENTIETH 

I count life just a stuff 
To try the soul's strength on, educe the man. 

IN A BALCONY 

FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIRST 

Faith is my waking life: 
One sleeps, indeed, and dreams at intervals. 
We know, but waking 's the main point with us. 

BISHOP BLOUGRAm's APOLOGY 
[ 10 ] 



FEBRUARY TWENTY-SECOND 

Oh, if we draw a circle premature, 

Heedless of far gain, 
Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure 

Bad is our bargain. 

A grammarian's funeral 

FEBRUARY TWENTY-THIRD 

God, whom I praise; how could I praise. 

If such as I might understand. 
Make out and reckon on his ways? 

JOHANNES AGRICOLA IN MEDITATION 

FEBRUARY TWENTY-FOURTH 

Such a spirit 
Shall hold the path from which our staunchest 

broke; 
Stand firm where every famed precursor fell. 

luria 
FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIFTH 

You 're my friend — 
What a thing friendship is, world without end! 
How it gives the heart and soul a stir-up! 

THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS 

FEBRUARY TWENTY-SIXTH 

Faith 

That, some far day, were found 
Ripeness in things now rathe. 

Wrong righted, each chain unbound. 
Renewal born out of scathe. 

REVERIE 

[ " ] 



FEBRUARY TWENTY-SEVENTH 

As man, 
With a man's will, when I say " I intend," 
I can intend up to a certain point, 
No farther. 

KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES 

FEBRUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Say, does the seed scorn earth and seek the sun? 
Surely it has no other end and aim 
Than to drop, once more die into the ground. 
Taste cold and darkness and oblivion there: 
And thence rise, tree-like grow through pain to 

More joy and most joy, — do man good again. 

balaustion's adventure 

FEBRUARY TWENTY-NINTH 

So, life can boast its day, like leap-year, 
Stolen from death! 

ST. martin's summer 



[ 12 ] 



MARCH 

MARCH FIRST 

GIVE yourself, excluding aught beside, 
To the day's task. 

SORDELLO 

MARCH SECOND 

Truth remains true, the fault 's in the prover. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

MARCH THIRD 

In March, a double rainbow stopped the storm. 

PIPPA PASSES 

MARCH FOURTH 

A warm March day, just that! 
Just so much sunshine as the cottage child 
Basks in delighted, while the cottager 
Takes off his bonnet, as he ceases work. 
To catch the more of it. 

KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES 

MARCH FIFTH 

Be sure that God ne*er dooms to waste the strength 
He deigns impart. 

PARACELSUS 

[ 13 ] 



MARCH SIXTH 

Be all the earth a wilderness, 
Only let me go on, go on, 
Still hoping, ever and anon, 
To reach on eve the better land. 



MARCH SEVENTH 
Oh, life! life-breath! 
Life-blood! ere sleep come 
Travail, life ere death. 



CHRISTMAS EVE 



SORDELLO 



MARCH EIGHTH 

Henceforth I asked God counsel, not mankind. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

MARCH NINTH 

The morn vv^hen first it thunders in March, 
The eel in the pond gives a leap, they say. 

OLD PICTURES IN FLORENCE 

MARCH TENTH 

Oh w^hat a davi^n of day! 

How the March sun feels like May! 

All is blue again, 

After last night's rain. 
And the South dries the hawthorn-spray. 

A lovers' QUARREL 

[ H] 



MARCH ELEVENTH 

Air, air, fresh life-blood, thin and searching air, 
The clear, dear breath of God that loveth us, ' 
Where small birds reel and winds take their delight! 
Water is beautiful, but not like air. 

PAULINE 

MARCH TWELFTH 
Best love of all is God's. 

PIPPA PASSES 

MARCH THIRTEENTH 

Commend me to home-joy, the family-board, altar, 
and hearth. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

MARCH FOURTEENTH 

Most progress is most failure. 

CLEON 

MARCH FIFTEENTH 

Winter 's in wane. His vengeful worst art thou. 
To dash the boldness of advancing March. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

MARCH SIXTEENTH 

The chivalry 
That dares the right, and 
Disregards alike the "Yea" 
And "Nay"o' the world. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

[ '5 ] 



MARCH SEVENTEENTH 

Man is born nowise to content himself, but please 
God. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 



MARCH EIGHTEENTH 

The woods were long austere with snow: at last 
Pink leaflets budded on the beech, and fast 
Larches, scattered through pine-tree solitudes, 

. . . Grew young again 
To placid incantations. 

SORDELLO 

MARCH NINETEENTH 

He thought I could not properly forgive, unless I 

ceased 
Forgetting, which is true. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

MARCH TWENTIETH 

God has conceded two sights to a man — 
One, of men's whole work, time's completed plan; 
The other, of the minute's work, man's first 
Step to the plan's completeness. 

SORDELLO 

MARCH TWENTY-FIRST 

What is our failure here but a triumph's evidence 
For the fulness of the days ? 

ABT VOGLER 



[ i6] 



MARCH TWENTY-SECOND 

Ivy and violet, what do ye here, 
With blossom and shoot in the warm Spring wea- 
ther? 

colombe's birthday 

MARCH TWENTY-THIRD 

Sky laughs blue, earth blossoms youthfully. 

Aristophanes' apology 

MARCH TWENTY-FOURTH 

I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists. 
The more of doubt, the stronger faith I say, 
If faith overcomes doubt. 

BISHOP BL0UGRAM*S APOLOGY 

MARCH TWENTY-FIFTH 

Lily of a maiden, white with impa6t leaf, 
Guessed through the sheaf that saved it from the 
sun. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

MARCH TWENTY-SIXTH 

My God, my God, let me for once look on thee! 
I need thee and I feel thee and I love thee. 
I do not plead my rapture in thy works 
For love of thee, nor that I feel as one 
Who cannot die: but there is that in me 
Which turns to thee, which loves or which should 
love. 

PAULINE 

[ «7] 



MARCH TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Put pain from out the world, what room were left 
For thanks to God, for love to Man? 

ferishtah's fancies 

MARCH TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Oft have I been keeping lonely watch with thee 
In the damp night by weeping Olivet, 
Or leaning on thy bosom, proudly less. 
Or dying with thee on the lonely Cross. 

PAULINE 

MARCH TWENTY-NINTH 

Too much love! how could God love so? 

EASTER-DAY 

MARCH THIRTIETH 

Look not thou down but up! 
To uses of a cup, 
The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal, 
The new wine's foaming flow 
The Master's lips a-glow! 

RABBI BEN EZRA 

MARCH THIRTY-FIRST 
Only the Cross at end of all. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 



[ i8 ] 



APRIL 



APRIL FIRST 

SOUL that canst soar! 
Body may slumber: 
Body shall cumber 
Soul-flight no more. 



APRIL SECOND 

But Easter-Day breaks! 
Christ rises! Mercy every way 
Is infinite. 



LA SAISIAZ 



EASTER-DAY 



APRIL THIRD 

'T was Winter yesterday ; now, all is warmth, 
The green leaf 's springing and the turtle's voice, 
"Arise and come away!" 

A BLOT IN THE 'sCUTCHEON 

APRIL FOURTH 

'T is time new hopes should animate the world. 
New light should dawn from new revealings 
To a race, weighed down so long, forgotten so long! 

PARACELSUS 



[ «9] 



APRIL FIFTH 

Robin has built on the apple tree, and our 
Creeper which came to grief 

Through the frost, we feared, is twining 
Round each casement in famous leaf. 



DRAMATIC IDYLS 



PIPPA PASSES 



APRIL SIXTH 

Spring 's come and Summer 's coming. 

APRIL SEVENTH 

When shy buds venture out, 

And the air by mild degrees 
Puts Winter's death past doubt. 



APRIL EIGHTH 

Man's work is to labour and leaven — 
As best he may — earth here with heaven. 

PACCHIAROTTO 

APRIL NINTH 

How of the field's fortune ? That concerned our 

Leader! 
Led, we struck our stroke nor cared for doings left 

and right : 
Each as on his sole head, failer or succeeder, 
Lay the blame or lit the praise: no care for cowards: 

fight! 

FERISHTAh's FANCIES 

[ ^o] 



APRIL TENTH 

Hold on, hope hard in the subtle thing 
That 's spirit. 

PACCHIAROTTO 

APRIL ELEVENTH 

How April snowed white blossoms! 

PIPPA PASSES 

APRIL TWELFTH 

The tell-tale cuckoo: Spring's his confidant, 
And he lets out her April purposes! 

PIPPA PASSES 

APRIL THIRTEENTH 

A man can have but one life and one death, 
One heaven, one hell. 

IN A BALCONY 

APRIL FOURTEENTH 
Cowslips, abundant birth 
O'er meadow and hillside, vineyard too. 

EPILOGUE 
[TO PACCHIAROTTO] 

APRIL FIFTEENTH 

It had got half through April. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

APRIL SIXTEENTH 

Knowledge means 
Ever renewed assurance by defeat 
That viftory is somehow still to reach, 
But love is vidtory, the prize itself. 

ferishtah's fancies 

[21 ] 



APRIL SEVENTEENTH 

Here 's the Spring back or close, 
When the almond-blossom blows. 

A lovers' quarrel 

APRIL EIGHTEENTH 

Oh, to be in England 

Now that April 's there. 

And whoever wakes in England 

Sees, some morning, unaware. 

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf 

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf. 

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough 

In England — now! 

HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD 

APRIL NINETEENTH 
O the rare Spring-time! 

JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH 

APRIL TWENTIETH 

Is it better in May, I ask you ? You Ve Summer 

all at once; 
In a day he leaps complete with a few strong April 

suns. 

UP AT A VILLA 

APRIL TWENTY-FIRST 

Men are not angels, neither are they brutes. 

BISHOP BLOUGRAm's APOLOGY 



[ " ] 



APRIL TWENTY-SECOND 

So force is sorrow, and each sorrow force. 

THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC 

APRIL TWENTY-THIRD 

And — consequent upon the learning how from 

strife 
Grew peace — from evil — good came knowledge 

that, to get 
Acquaintance with the way o* the world, we must 

nor fret 
Nor fume, on altitudes of self-sufficiency, 
But bid a frank farewell to what — we think — 

should be. 
And, with as good a grace, welcome what is — we 

find. 

FIFINE AT THE FAIR 

APRIL TWENTY-FOURTH 

Neither the wind-blasts always have their strength 

Nor happy men keep happy to the end: 

Since all things change — their natures part in 

twain; , 

And that man 's bravest, therefore, who hopes on, 
Hopes ever : to despair is coward-like. 

Aristophanes' apology 
APRIL TWENTY-FIFTH 

Man must be fed with angels' food. 

PARACELSUS 

APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH 

The thing wanted, soon or late, will be supplied. 

FIFINE AT THE FAIR 

[^3 ] 



APRIL TWENTY-SEVENTH 

To me, at least, was never evening yet 
But seemed far beautifuUer than its day. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

APRIL TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Spring's first breath 
Blew soft from the moist hills; the blackthorn 

boughs, 
So dark in the bare wood, when glistening 
In the sunshine were white with coming buds. 
Like the bright side of a sorrow, and the banks 
Had violets opening from sleeplike eyes. 

PAULINE 

APRIL TWENTY-NINTH 

'Twill be, I feel. 
Only in moments that the duty 's seen 
As palpably as now: the months, the years 
Of painful indistin<5lness are to come. 

KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES 
t 

APRIL THIRTIETH 

No, when the fight begins within himself, 

A man's worth something. God stoops o'er his 

head, 
Satan looks up between his feet — both tug — 
He's left, himself, i' the middle: the soul wakes 
And grows. Prolong that battle through his life! 
Never leave growing till the life to come! 

BISHOP BLOUGRAm's APOLOGY 

[ H] 



MAY 

MAY FIRST 

THIS May breaks all to bud. No Winter now. 
THE INN ALBUM 

MAY SECOND 

Such a starved bank of moss! 

Till that May-morn, 
Blue ran the flash across: 
Violets were born! 

THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC 

MAY THIRD 

And after April, when May follows, 
builds, and all tl 

HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD 



And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows! 



MAY FOURTH 

"I sleep out disappointment." 
"Come along, never lose heart!" 

JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH 

MAY FIFTH 

Hill and dale 
And steel-bright thread of stream, a-smoke with 

mist, 
A-sparkle with May morning, diamond drift 
O' the sun-touched dew. 

THE INN ALBUM 

[ ^5 ] 



MAY SIXTH 

And here 's May-month, all bloom, 
All bounty. 

EPILOGUE 

[TO PACCHIAROTTO] 

MAY SEVENTH 

He at least believed in soul, was very sure of God. 

LA SAISIAZ 

MAY EIGHTH 

The great elm-tree in the open, posed 

Placidly full in front, smooth bole, broad branch. 

And leafage, one green plenitude of May. 

THE INN ALBUM 

MAY NINTH 

This May — vsrhat magic weather! 

NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE 

MAY TENTH 

Who speaks of man, then, must not sever 
Man's very elements from man. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

MAY ELEVENTH 

What is left for us, save, in growth 
Of soul, to rise up, far past both. 
From the gift looking to the giver. 
And from the cistern to the river. 
And from the finite to infinity. 
And from man's dust to God's divinity? 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

[ ^6 ] 



MAY TWELFTH 

There must be many a pair of friends 
Who, arm in arm, deserve the warm 
Moon-births and the long evening-ends. 
So, for their sake, be May still May ! 

MAY AND DEATH 

MAY THIRTEENTH 

God is, they are, man partly is and w^holly hopes 
to be. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

MAY FOURTEENTH 

God . . . glows above 
With scarce an intervention, presses close 
And palpitatingly, his soul o'er ours. 

MAY FIFTEENTH 

So high the sun rides. May's the merry month. 

THE INN ALBUM 

MAY SIXTEENTH 

The frost is over and gone ; 

The South-wind laughs. ^„^ „. ^ ^ „^ ^^ 

o THE RING AND THE BOOK 

MAY SEVENTEENTH 

Love once, and you love always. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ 

MAY EIGHTEENTH 

Your reward or soon, or late. 

Will come from him, whom no man serves in vain. 

PARACELSUS 

[ 27 ] 



MAY NINETEENTH 

Ay, here! 
Here is earth's noblest, nobly garlanded — 
Her bravest champion with his well- won prize — 
Her best achievement. 



PARACELSUS 



MAY TWENTIETH 

The year 's at the spring 
And day 's at the morn; 
Morning's at seven; 
The hill-side 's dew-pearled; 
The lark 's on the wing; 
The snail 's on the thorn: 
God's in his heaven — 
All's right with the world! 



PIPPA PASSES 



MAY TWENTY-FIRST 

My part is plain — 
To meet and match the gift and gift 
With love and love, with praise and praise. 



FERISHTAH S FANCIES 



MAY TWENTY-SECOND 

Measure your mind's height by the shade it casts. 

PARACELSUS 



MAY TWENTY-THIRD 
Why live except for love ? 

[ ^8 ] 



THE RING AND THE BOOK 



MAY TWENTY-FOURTH 

For mankind springs salvation by each hindrance 
interposed. 



MAY TWENTY-FIFTH 

'T was a sunrise of blossoming May. 



SORDELLO 



SORDELLO 



MAY TWENTY-SIXTH 

May's warm slow yellow moonlit nights! 

PIPPA PASSES 

MAY TWENTY-SEVENTH 

God plants us where we grow. 
It is not that because a bud is born 
At a wild briar's end, full in the wild beast's way, 
We ought to pluck and put it out of reach on the 
oak tree-top. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

MAY TWENTY-EIGHTH 

I profess no other share 
In the sele<5lion of my lot than this — 
My ready answer to the will of God, 
Who summons me to be his organ. 

PARACELSUS 

MAY TWENTY-NINTH 

That May-morning, we two stole 
Under the green ascent of sycamores. 

PIPPA PASSES 

[ 29] 



MAY THIRTIETH 
Here is Spring! 
The sun shines as he shone at Adam's fall. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK 



MAY THIRTY-FIRST 

On the sea and at the Hague, sixteen hundred 
ninety-two, 
Did the English fight the French — woe to France ! 
And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter 

through the blue. 
Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of 
sharks pursue. 
Came crowding ship on ship to Saint Malo on the 
Ranee, 
With the English fleet in view. 



HERVE RIEL 



[ 3° ] 



JUNE 

JUNE FIRST 

SOMETIMES when the weather 
Is blue, and warm waves tempt 
To free oneself of tether, 
And try a life exempt 
From worldly noise. 

FIFINE AT THE FAIR 

JUNE SECOND 

Well for those who live through June! 
Great noontides, thunderstorms, all glaring pomps 
That triumph at the heels of June the god 
Leading his revel through our leafy world. 

PIPPA PASSES 

JUNE THIRD 

Bind June lilies into sheaves to deck the bridge- 
side chapel. 

SORDELLO 

JUNE FOURTH 

It is our trust that there is yet another world to 
mend all error and mischance. 

PARACELSUS 

[ 3> ] 



JUNE FIFTH 

God told him that it was June, and he knew well 
without such telling, that harebells grew in 
June. 



PARACELSUS 



JUNE SIXTH 

I go to prove my soul ! 
I see my way as birds their trackless way. 
I shall arrive! what time, what circuit first, 
I ask not : but unless God send his hail 
Or blinding fireballs, sleet or stifling snow, 
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive. 

PARACELSUS 

JUNE SEVENTH 

June 's twice June since she breathed it with 
me; 
Come, bud, show me the least of her traces. 

Treasure my lady's lightest footfall! 
— Ah, you may flout and turn up your faces — 

Roses, you are not so fair after all! 

GARDEN FANCIES 

JUNE EIGHTH 

It was roses, roses, all the way. 



THE PATRIOT 



JUNE NINTH 

Birth-blush of the briar-rose. 
Mist-bloom of the hedge-sloe. 

[ 32 ] 



FLUTE-MUSIC 



JUNE TENTH 

You'll love me yet! — and I can tarry 

Your love's protracted growling: 
June reared that bunch of flowers you carry, 

From seeds of April's sowing. 

PIPPA PASSES 

JUNE ELEVENTH 

God who registers the cup 

Of mere cold water, for his sake 
To a disciple rendered up, 

Disdains not his own thirst to slake 
At the poorest love was ever offered. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

JUNE TWELFTH 

I think, am sure, a brother's love exceeds 
All the world's love in its unworldliness. 

A BLOT IN THE 'sCUTCHEON 

JUNE THIRTEENTH 

Why stay we on the earth except to grow? 



JUNE FOURTEENTH 

Lights and shades, murmurs and silences. 
Sun- warmth, dew-coolness, — squirrel, bee and 
bird. 

THE INN ALBUM 



[ 33 ] 



JUNE FIFTEENTH 

Breathe but one breath, 

Rose-beauty above, 
And all that was death 
Grows life, grows love. 
Grows love! 

JOCOSERIA 

JUNE SIXTEENTH 

Flower that 's full-blown tempts the butterfly. 
Not that flower that 's furled. 

LA SAISIAZ 

JUNE SEVENTEENTH 
Ah, the bird-like fluting 

Through the ash-tops yonder — 
BuUfinch-bubblings, soft sounds suiting 

What sweet thoughts, I wonder ? 

FLUTE-MUSIC 

JUNE EIGHTEENTH 

Indeed the especial marking of the man 
Is prone submission to the heavenly will. 

AN EPISTLE 

JUNE NINETEENTH 

O the old wall here! How I could pass 

Life in a long midsummer day. 
My feet confined to a plot of grass. 

My eyes from a wall not once away! 

PACCHIAROTTO 

[ 34 ] 



JUNE TWENTIETH 

Life and song should away from heart to heart. 

PACCHIAROTTO 

JUNE TWENTY-FIRST 

But who clothes Summer, who is life itself ? 
God, that created all things, can renew! 

PARACELSUS 

JUNE TWENTY-SECOND 

A broiling blasting June, — was never its like, men 
say. 

Corn stood sheaf-ripe already, and trees looked yel- 
low as that; 

Ponds lay drained dust-dry, the cattle lay foaming 
around each flat. 

DRAMATIC IDYLS 

JUNE TWENTY-THIRD 

Came the clear voice of the cloistered ones. 
Chanting a chant made for midsummer nights. 
I know not what particular praise of God; 
It always came and went with June. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

JUNE TWENTY-FOURTH 

Thou with the soul that never can take rest. 
Thou born to do, undo, and do again, and never 
to be still. 



[ 35 ] 



JUNE TWENTY-FIFTH 
So we battled it like men, 
Not boylike sulked or whined. 

ferishtah's fancies 

JUNE TWENTY-SIXTH 

I would love infinitely, and be loved. 

PARACELSUS 

JUNE TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Earth's rose is a bud that 's checked or grows 
As beams may encourage or blasts oppose. 

REPHAN 

JUNE TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Oh lyric love, half angel and half bird, 
And all a wonder and a wild desire! 
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun. 
Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

JUNE TWENTY-NINTH 

Hill, vale, tree, flower — they stand distin6l. 
Nature to know and name. 

ASOLANDO 

JUNE THIRTIETH 

He would not look so joyous — I'll believe 

His very eye would never sparkle thus. 

Had I not prayed for him this long, long while. 

STRAFFORD 

[ 36] 



JULY 

JULY FIRST 

IS it for nothing we grow old and weak, 
We whom God loves? 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

JULY SECOND 

Religion's all or nothing; it's no mere smile 
O' contentment, sigh of aspiration, sir — 
No quality o' the finelier tempered clay 
Like its whiteness or its likeness; rather, stuff 
O' the very stuff, life of life, and self of self. 

MR. SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM 

JULY THIRD 

Such ever was love's way : to rise, it stoops. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

JULY FOURTH 

Reap joy where sorrow was intended grow. 
Of wrong make right, and turn ill good below! 

SORDELLO 

JULY FIFTH 

True life is only love, love only bliss. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

[ 37 ] 



JULY SIXTH 

'T is July, strong now, and white dust-clouds over- 
whelm the woodside. 

SORDELLO 

JULY SEVENTH 

Man's part 

Is plain, — to send love forth, — astray, perhaps: 
No matter, he has done his part. 

ferishtah's fancies 

JULY EIGHTH 

Love, give love, ask only love and leave the rest. 

IN A BALCONY 

JULY NINTH 

God smiles as he has always smiled. 

JOHANNES AGRICOLA 

JULY TENTH 

Amid the noise of a July noon 

When all God's creatures crave their boon. 

All at once and all in tune. 



JULY ELEVENTH 

Overhead the tree-tops meet. 
Flowers and grass spring 'neath one's feet; 
There was naught above me, naught below, 
My childhood had not learned to know: 

[ 38 ] 



For, what are the voices of birds 

— Ay, and of beasts, — but words, our words. 

Only so much more sweet? 

PIPPA PASSES 

JULY TWELFTH 

To do little is bad, to do nothing is worse. 

ferishtah's fancies 

JULY THIRTEENTH 

Love, hope, fear, faith, — these make humanity. 
These are its sign and note and charader. 



JULY FOURTEENTH 

Be patient, mark and mend! 



PARACELSUS 



DIS ALITER VISUM 



JULY FIFTEENTH 
Life's i' the tempest; 
Thought clothes the keen hill-top; 
Mid-day woods are fraught with fervour. 

SORDELLO 

JULY SIXTEENTH 

You never know what life means till you die; 
Even through life, it's death that makes life live — 
Gives it whatever the significance. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 



[ 39] 



JULY SEVENTEENTH 

There's a woman like a dew-drop, she 's so purer 
than the purest j 

And her noble heart's the noblest, yes, and her sure 
faith's the surest: 

And her eyes are dark and humid, like the depth 
on depth of lustre 

Hid i' the harebell, while her tresses, sunnier than 
the wild-grape cluster. 

Gush in golden-tinted plenty down her neck's rose- 
misted marble: 

Then her voice's music . . . call it the well's bub- 
bling, the bird's warble! 

A BLOT IN THE 'sCUTCHEON 

JULY EIGHTEENTH 

Though he is so bright, and we so dim, 
We are made in his image to witness him. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

JULY NINETEENTH 

All pain must be to work some good in the end. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

JULY TWENTIETH 

Why repine? there's always someone lives although 
ourselves be dead. 

LA SAISIAZ 

JULY TWENTY-FIRST 

Abundant air to breathe, sufficient sun to feel! 

FIFINE AT THE FAIR 

[4°] 



JULY TWENTY-SECOND 

God! Thou art mind! Unto the master-mind 
Mind should be precious. 

PARACELSUS 

JULY TWENTY-THIRD 

Calm sits Caution, rapt with heavenward eye, a 
true confessor's gaze. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

JULY TWENTY-FOURTH 

Little and bad exist, are natural, 
Then let me know them and be twice as great. 

ARISTOPHANES* APOLOGY 

JULY TWENTY-FIFTH 

Let each task present 
Its petty good to thee. Waste not thy gifts 
In profitless waiting for the gods' descent. 

PARACELSUS 

JULY TWENTY-SIXTH 

You know how weak the strongest women are. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

JULY TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Here, work enough to watch 
The Master work, and catch 
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true 
play. 

RABBI BEN EZRA 

[4> ] 



JULY TWENTY-EIGHTH 

All men hope, and see their hopes frustrate, and 
grieve awhile, and hope anew. 

A BLOT IN THE 'sCUTCHEON 

JULY TWENTY-NINTH 

Shall I find aught new 

In the old and dear ? 
In the good and true 

With the changing year ? 

JAMES lee's wife 

JULY THIRTIETH 

What though I sink, another may succeed. 

PARACELSUS 

JULY THIRTY-FIRST 

Is this we live on heaven and the final state, or 
earth, which means probation to the end ? 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 



[4^ ] 



AUGUST 

AUGUST FIRST 

FOR life, with all it yields of joy and woe, 
And hope and fear, — believe the aged friend, — 
Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love. 
How love might be, hath been indeed, and is. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

AUGUST SECOND 

Who breaks law, breaks padl, therefore helps him- 
self 
To pleasure and profits, over and above the due. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

AUGUST THIRD 

Every man of the right race bears what at least 
the gods infli6l, nor shrinks. 

ARISTOPHANES* APOLOGY 

AUGUST FOURTH 

We find great things are made of little things. 
And things go lessening till at last 
Comes God behind them. 

MR. SLUDGE, THE MEDIUM 



[43 ] 



AUGUST FIFTH 

What I aspired to be, 
And was not, comforts me. 

RABBI BEN EZRA 

AUGUST SIXTH 

Could I retain one strain of all the psalm 
Of the angels, one word of the fiat of God ! 

PARACELSUS 

AUGUST SEVENTH 

When a man 's busy, why, leisure 
Strikes him as wonderful pleasure. 

THE GLOVE 

AUGUST EIGHTH 

Take away love and our earth is a tomb. 

FRA LIPPO LIPPI 

AUGUST NINTH 

We try and cull 
Briars, thistles, from our private plot. 
To mar God's ground where thorns are not. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

AUGUST TENTH 

God! Thou art love! I build my faith on that. 

PARACELSUS 

AUGUST ELEVENTH 

I thirst for truth, but shall not reach it till I reach 
the source. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

[44 ] 



AUGUST TWELFTH 

Only be sure thy daily life, 
In its peace or in its strife, 
Never shall be unobserved. 

THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS 

AUGUST THIRTEENTH 

He holds on firmly to some thread of life — 
(It is the life to lead perforcedly) 
Which runs across some vast distra(5ling orb 
Of glory on either side that meagre thread, 
Which, conscious of, he must not enter yet — 
The spiritual life around the earthly life. 

AN EPISTLE 

AUGUST FOURTEENTH 

Innocence often looks like guiltiness. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

AUGUST FIFTEENTH 

Songs, Spring thought perfe6tion, 

Summer criticises: 
What in May escaped detedlion, 

August, past surprises. 



Notes, and names each blunder. 



FLUTE-MUSIC 



AUGUST SIXTEENTH 

We women hate a debt, as men a gift. 



IN A BALCONY 



[45 ] 



AUGUST SEVENTEENTH 

There shall never be one lost good ! what was, shall 
live as before; 
The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying 
sound; 
What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so 
much good more; 
On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a 
perfe(5l round. 



ABT VOGLER 



AUGUST EIGHTEENTH 

I say that man was made to grow, not stop; 
That help, he needed once, and needs no more. 
Having grown but an inch by, is withdrawn: 
For he hath new needs, and new helps to these. 
This imports solely, man should mount on each 
New height in view; the help whereby he mounts. 
The ladder-rung his foot has left, may fall. 
Since al l things suffer cha nge save God the Trut h. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

AUGUST NINETEENTH 

Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise 
From outward things, whate'er you may believe. 
There is an inmost centre in us all. 
Where truth abides in fulness; and around. 
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in. 

PARACELSUS 



[46] 



AUGUST TWENTIETH 

God breathes, not speaks; his verdidl's felt, not 
heard. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

AUGUST TWENTY-FIRST 

Only grant that I do serve; if otherwise, why want 
aught further of me? 

SORDELLO 

AUGUST TWENTY-SECOND 

Why should despair be ? Since, distindl above 
Man's wickedness and folly, flies the wind 
And floats the cloud, free transport for our soul 
Out of its fleshly durance dim and low. 

Aristophanes' apology 

AUGUST TWENTY-THIRD 

What 's the earth 
With all its art, verse, music, worth — 
Compared with love, found, gained, and kept? 

DIS ALITER VISUM 

AUGUST TWENTY-FOURTH 

Therefore desire joy and thank God for it. 

FERISHTAh's FANCIES 

AUGUST TWENTY-FIFTH 

The best men ever prove the wisest too: 
Something instindlive guides them still aright. 

balaustion's adventure 

[47 ] 



AUGUST TWENTY-SIXTH 

Progress, man's distinftive mark alone, 
Not God's, and not the beasts' : God is, they 

are, 
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

AUGUST TWENTY-SEVENTH 

I think the soul can never taste death. 

PARACELSUS 

AUGUST TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Be love less or more 
In the heart of man, he keeps it shut 
Or opes it w^ide, as he pleases, but 
Love's sum remains what it was before. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

AUGUST TWENTY-NINTH 

There is no trial like the appropriate one 
Of leaving little minds their liberty 
Of littleness to blunder on through life. 

PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU 

AUGUST THIRTIETH 

The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth 
too hard, 
The passion that left the ground to lose itself 
in the sky, 



[48 ] 



Are music sent up to God by the lover and the 
bard; 
Enough that he heard it once: we shall hear it 
by-and-by. 

ABT VOGLER 

AUGUST THIRTY-FIRST 

'T is the taught already that profits by teaching. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 



[49] 



SEPTEMBER *= 

SEPTEMBER FIRST 

OH, good gigantic smile o' the brown old earth, 
This Autumn morning! 

JAMES lee's wife 

SEPTEMBER SECOND 

Belief or unbelief 
Bears upon life, determines its whole course, 
Begins at its beginning. 

BISHOP BLOUGRAm's APOLOGY 

SEPTEMBER THIRD 

There is a vision in the heart of each 
Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness 
To wrong and pain, and knowledge of its cure. 

colombe's birthday 

SEPTEMBER FOURTH 

The thing I pity most in men is — a6lion prompted 
by surprise of anger. 

A FORGIVENESS 

SEPTEMBER FIFTH 

Oh God, who shall pluck the sheep thou boldest 
from thy hand! 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

[ 5J ] 



SEPTEMBER SIXTH 

I feel Love's sure eflFeft, and being loved must love ! 

ferishtah's fancies 

SEPTEMBER SEVENTH 

All service ranks the same with God: 

If now, as formerly he trod 

Paradise, his presence fills 

Our earth, each only as God wills 

Can work, — God's puppets, best and worst. 

Are wei there is no last nor first. 

PIPPA PASSES 

SEPTEMBER EIGHTH 

Let our God's praise 
Go bravely through the world at last! What care 
Through me or thee? 

PARACELSUS 

SEPTEMBER NINTH 

Autumn has come like Spring returned to us. 
Won from her girlishness. 



SEPTEMBER TENTH 

How soon a smile of God can change the world ! 
How we are made for happiness — how work 
Grows play, adversity a winning fight! 

IN A BALCONY 



[ 5^ ] 



SEPTEMBER ELEVENTH 

I looked beyond the world for truth and beauty: 
Sought, found and did my duty. 

ferishtah's fancies 
SEPTEMBER TWELFTH 

I trust in nature for the stable laws 
Of beauty and utility. — Spring shall plant, 
And Autumn garner to the end of time: 
I trust in God — the right shall be the right 
And other than the wrong, while he endures: 
I trust in my own soul, that can perceive 
The outward and the inward, nature's good 
And God's. 



SEPTEMBER THIRTEENTH 

This Autumn was a pleasant time, for some few 
sunny days. 

PARACELSUS 

SEPTEMBER FOURTEENTH 

And all day I sent prayer like incense up 

To God the strong, God the beneficent, 

God ever mindful in all strife and strait, 

Who for our own good makes the need extreme, 

Till at last he puts forth might and saves. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

SEPTEMBER FIFTEENTH 

Just see what life is, with its shifts and turns! 

COLOMBE's BIRTHDAY 

[ 53 ] 



SEPTEMBER SIXTEENTH 

When Autumn blusters and the orchard rocks. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

SEPTEMBER SEVENTEENTH 

Each of us heard clang God's " Come ! " and each 
was coming: 

Soldiers all, to forward-face, not sneaks to lag be- 
hind! 

ferishtah's fancies 

SEPTEMBER EIGHTEENTH 

Night set in early; Autumn dews were rife. 

sordello 

SEPTEMBER NINETEENTH 

All men are men: I would all minds were minds! 
Whereas 'tis just the many's mindless mass 
That most needs helping. 

JOCHANAN HAKKADOSH 

SEPTEMBER TWENTIETH 

The world's tide rolls, and 
What hope of parting from the press of waves? 
My life must be lived out in foam and roar. 

SORDELLO 

SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIRST 

Ask thy lone soul what laws are plain to thee — 
Thee and no other: stand and fall by them. 

That is the part for thee. 

ferishtah's fancies 

[ 54 ] 



SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SECOND 
Love is born of heart, not mind. 

PIETRO OF ABANO 

SEPTEMBER TWENTY-THIRD 

Let them pelt and pound, bruise, bray you in a 

mortar! 
What 's the odds to you who seek reward of quite 

another nature? 

PIETRO OF ABANO 

SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH 

Knowledge and power have rights, 
But ignorance and weakness have rights too. 

BISHOP BLOUGRAm's APOLOGY 

SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH 

The seeming solitary man, speaking from God, 
May have an audience too, invisible. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH 

Truth is truth, and justifies itself by undreamed 
ways. 

BISHOP BLOUGRAm's APOLOGY 

SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH 

You are endowed with faculties which bear 
Annexed to them as 't were a dispensation 
To summon meaner spirits to do their will. 

PARACELSUS 

[55 ] 



SEPTEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH 
She was a6live, stirring, all fire — 
Could not rest, could not tire — 
To a stone she might have given life! 

THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS 

SEPTEMBER TWENTY-NINTH 

The angels love to do their work betimes, 
Staunch some wounds here, nor leave so much for 
God. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

SEPTEMBER THIRTIETH 

Never the time and the place 
And the loved one all together! 

NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE 



[ 56 ] 



OCTOBER 

OCTOBER FIRST 

KEEP but God's model safe, 
New men will rise to take its mould. 



LURIA 

OCTOBER SECOND 

How very hard it is to be a Christian ! 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

OCTOBER THIRD 

Early in Autumn, at first Winter-warning. 

THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS 

OCTOBER FOURTH 

To make, you must be marred, — 
To raise your race, must stoop, — to teach them 

aught, must learn 
Ignorance, meet half-way what most you hope to 

spurn 
r the sequel. 

FIFINE AT THE FAIR 

OCTOBER FIFTH 

But hush! for you, can be no despair: 

There 's amends: 't is a secret: hope and pray! 

THE WORST OF IT 

[ 57 ] 



OCTOBER SIXTH 

Weakness never needs be falseness. 



LA SAISIAZ 



OCTOBER SEVENTH 

It 's wiser being good than bad; 

It 's safer being meek than fierce; 
It 's fitter being sane than mad. 

My own hope is, a sun will pierce 
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; 

That, after Last, returns the First, 
Though a wide compass round be fetched; 

That what began best, can't end worst. 
Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst. 

APPARENT FAILURE 

OCTOBER EIGHTH 

I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ 
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee 
All questions in the earth and out of it. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

OCTOBER NINTH 

Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to 
sympathy for its decay. 

PARACELSUS 

OCTOBER TENTH 

Mercy is safe and graceful. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

[ 58 ] 



OCTOBER ELEVENTH 

What 's failure or success to me ? 
I have subdued my life. 

PARACELSUS 

OCTOBER TWELFTH 

For I say, this is death and the sole death, 
When a man's loss comes to him from his gain. 
Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance. 
And lack of love from love made manifest. 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 

OCTOBER THIRTEENTH 

A great is better than a little aim. 

colombe's birthday 

OCTOBER FOURTEENTH 

Flovi^ers' departure, frost's arrival. 

la saisiaz 

OCTOBER FIFTEENTH 

In short, God's service is established here 
As he determines fit, and not your way, 
And this you cannot brook. Such discontent 
Is weak. Renounce all creatureship at once! 

PARACELSUS 

OCTOBER SIXTEENTH 

In this world, who can do a thing, will not; 
And who would do it, cannot, I perceive. 

ANDREA DEL SARTO 

[ 59] 



OCTOBER SEVENTEENTH 

Days decrease, and Autumn grows, Autumn in 
everything. 

ANDREA DEL SARTO 

OCTOBER EIGHTEENTH 
^ In his face is light, but in his shadow healing too. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

OCTOBER NINETEENTH 

Truth is the strong thing. Let man's life be true! 

IN A BALCONY 

OCTOBER TWENTIETH 

Prayers move God. Threats and nothing else move 
men. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

OCTOBER TWENTY-FIRST 

For Autumn was the season, red the sky. 

ARISTOPHANES* APOLOGY 

OCTOBER TWENTY-SECOND 

I press God's lamp 
Close to my breast; its splendour, soon or late, 
Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge one day. 

PARACELSUS 

OCTOBER TWENTY-THIRD 

Well, my life reviewed fairly leaves more hope than 
discouragement. 

PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU 

[60] 



OCTOBER TWENTY-FOURTH 

I will be happy if but for once: 
Only help me, Autumn weather, 

Me and my cares to screen, ensconce 
In luxury's sofa-lap of leather! 



ASOLANDO 



OCTOBER TWENTY-FIFTH 

I was ever a fighter, so — one fight more, 
The best and the last! 

PROSPICE 

OCTOBER TWENTY-SIXTH 

One declining Autumn day — 
Few birds about the heaven chill and gray. 
No wind that cared trouble the tacit woods. 

SORDELLO 

OCTOBER TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Let friend trust friend, and love demand love's like. 

LURIA 

OCTOBER TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Never shall I believe any two souls were made 
Similar; granting, then, each soul of every grade 
Was meant to be itself, prove in itself complete 
And, in completion, good, — nay, best o' the kind. 

FIFINE AT THE FAIR 



[6, ] 



OCTOBER TWENTY-NINTH 
Honour is a gift of God to man, 
Precious beyond compare, which natural sense 
Of human rectitude and purity, . . . 
Brooks no touch. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

OCTOBER THIRTIETH 

I braved sorrow, courted joy, to just one end: 
Namely, that just the creature I was bound 
To be, I should become, nor thwart at all 
God's purpose in creation. 

PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU 

OCTOBER THIRTY-FIRST 

Just so much work as keeps the brain from rustj 
Just so much play as lets the heart expand — 
Honouring God, and serving man, I say — 
These are reality and all else fluflF. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 



[62 ] 



NOVEMBER 

NOVEMBER FIRST 

A VIRTUE golden through and through, 
Sufficient to vindicate itself 
And prove its vi^orth at a moment's view^! 

THE STATUE AND THE BUST 

NOVEMBER SECOND 

God is soul, souls I and thou: 

With souls should souls have place. 

ferishtah's fancies 

NOVEMBER THIRD 

God is, and the soul is, and as certain after death 
shall be. 

LA SAISIAZ 

NOVEMBER FOURTH 

Be sure they sleep not vi^hom God needs! Nor fear 
Their holding light his charge, vi^hen every hour 
That finds that charge delayed, is a new death. 

PARACELSUS 

NOVEMBER FIFTH 

We all aspire to heaven: and there lies heaven 
above us. 

A soul's tragedy 

[63 1 



NOVEMBER SIXTH 

That which seems worst to man to God is best, 
So, because God ordains it, best to man. 
Yet man — the foolish, weak and wicked — prays! 
Urges "My best were better, didst thou know!" 

ferishtah's fancies 

NOVEMBER SEVENTH 

The world lies under me: and nowhere I deteft 
So greatagift as this — God's own — of human Hfe. 
Shall the dead praise thee? No! The whole live 

world is rife, 
God, with thy glory! 

DRAMATIC IDYLS 

NOVEMBER EIGHTH 

That low man seeks a little thing to do, 

Sees it and does it: 
This high man, with a great thing to pursue, 
Dies ere he knows it. 

A grammarian's funeral 

NOVEMBER NINTH 

Through such souls alone, 
God, stooping, shows sufficient of his light 
For us in the dark to rise by. 

THE ring and the BOOK 

NOVEMBER TENTH 

When is man strong until he feels alone! 

colombe's birthday 

[64] 



NOVEMBER ELEVENTH 

No! youth once gone is gone: 

Deeds, let escape, are never to be done. 

SORDELLO 

NOVEMBER TWELFTH 

The world and life 's too big to pass for a dream. 

FRA LIPPO LIPPI 

NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH 
Mere decay produces richer life. 

SORDELLO 

NOVEMBER FOURTEENTH 

At worst I have performed my share of the task: 
The rest is God's concern. 

PARACELSUS 

NOVEMBER FIFTEENTH 

And then know that this curse will come on us, 
To see our idols perish. 

PAULINE 

NOVEMBER SIXTEENTH 

Knowing ourselves, our world, our task so great. 
Our time so brief, 't is clear if we refuse 
The means so limited, the tools so rude 
To execute our purpose, life will fleet. 

PARACELSUS 



[65 ] 



NOVEMBER SEVENTEENTH 

The common problem, yours, mine, every one's. 
Is — not to fancy what were fair in life 
Provided it could be, — but, finding first 
What may be, then find how to make it fair 
Up to our means: a very different thing! 

Aristophanes' apology 

NOVEMBER EIGHTEENTH 

Things learned on earth we shall pra6tise in 
heaven. 

OLD PICTURES IN FLORENCE 

NOVEMBER NINETEENTH 

Love which, on earth, amid all the shows of it, 
Has ever been seen the sole good of life in it, 
The love, ever growing there, spite of the strife 
in it, 
Shall arise, made perfe6l, from death's repose of it. 
And I shall behold thee face to face, 
O God, and in thy light retrace 
How in all I loved here, still wast thou! 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

NOVEMBER TWENTIETH 

The thing that seems 
Mere misery, under human schemes, 
Becomes, regarded by the light 
Of love, as very near, or quite 
As good a gift as joy before. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

[66] 



NOVEMBER TWENTY-FIRST 

Calm commonplace which neither missed, nor hit 
Inch-high, inch-low, the placid mark proposed. 

CHRISTOPHER SMART 

NOVEMBER TWENTY-SECOND 

That Time, who in the twilight comes to mend 
All the fantastic day's caprice. 

STRAFFORD 



NOVEMBER TWENTY-THIRD 

And pity is so near to love, and love so neighbourly 
to all unreasonableness. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 



NOVEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH 
Then, welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go! 
Be our joys three-parts pain ! 
Strive, and hold cheap the strain; 
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge 
the throe! 

RABBI BEN EZRA 

NOVEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH 

Oh, faith ! where art thou flown from out the world ? 
Already on what an age of doubt we fall ! 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 



[67 ] 



NOVEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH 

Yet God is good : I started sure of that, 
And why dispute it now? 

PARACELSUS 

NOVEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH 

And so I live, you see. 
Go through the world, try, prove, rejedl. 
Prefer, still struggling to effedl 
My warfare; happy that I can 
Be crossed and thwarted as a man, 
Not left in God's contempt apart. 
With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 

NOVEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Well, now, there is nothing in the world or out of 
it good, except truth. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

NOVEMBER TWENTY-NINTH 

Hadst thou learned 
What God accounteth happiness, 
Thou wouldst not find it hard to guess 
What hell may be his punishment 
For those who doubt if God invent 
Better than they. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 



[68 ] 



NOVEMBER THIRTIETH 

Since I, whom Christ's mouth taught, was bidden 

teach, 
I went, for many years, about the world. 
Saying "It was so; so I heard and saw." 

A DEATH IN THE DESERT 



[69 ] 



DECEMBER 



DECEMBER FIRST 



BUT I have always had one lode-star; now, 
As I look back, I see that I have halted 
Or hastened as I looked towards that star — 
A need, a trust, a yearning after God. 

PAULINE 



DECEMBER SECOND 

Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old. 

RABBI BEN EZRA 

DECEMBER THIRD 

And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost 
Is — the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin. 

THE STATUE AND THE BUST 

DECEMBER FOURTH 

Only grant my soul may carry high through death 
her cup unspilled. 

LA SAISIAZ 

DECEMBER FIFTH 

Praise the good log fire; Winter howls without! 
Crowd closer let us! 

THE TWO POETS OF CROISIC 

[71 ] 



DECEMBER SIXTH 

So death completes living, shows life in its truth. 

APOLLO AND THE FATES 

DECEMBER SEVENTH 

Nay, after earth, comes peace born out of life-long 
battle? 

BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE 

DECEMBER EIGHTH 

What would one have? 
In heaven, perhaps, new chances, one more chance. 

ANDREA DEL SARTO 

DECEMBER NINTH 

What's time? Leave Now for dogs and apes! 
Man has Forever. 

A grammarian's FUNERAL 

DECEMBER TENTH 

Let a man contend to the uttermost 
For his life's set prize, be it what it will! 

THE STATUE AND THE BUST 

DECEMBER ELEVENTH 

Fail I alone, in words and deeds? 
Why, all men strive and who succeeds? 

THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER 



[ n ] 



DECEMBER TWELFTH 

But God, though I am nothing, be thou all! 

THE INN ALBUM 

DECEMBER THIRTEENTH 
So, trial after trial past, 
Wilt thou fall at the very last 
Breathless, half in trance 
With the thrill of the great deliverance. 

THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS 

DECEMBER FOURTEENTH 

Let us leave God alone. Why should I doubt he 
vi^ill explain in time? 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

DECEMBER FIFTEENTH 
The bee vi^ith his comb, 
The mouse at her dray. 
The grub in his tomb. 
Wile vi^inter aw^ay. 

PIPPA PASSES 

DECEMBER SIXTEENTH 

Ponder on the entire past 
Laid together thus at last. 

THE FLIGHT OF THE DUCHESS 

DECEMBER SEVENTEENTH 

Time fleets how fast! and opportunity, the irre- 
vocable, once Rowiiy will flout him. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

[73 ] 



DECEMBER EIGHTEENTH 

Let me and you be wipers of scores out with all 
men. 

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 

DECEMBER NINETEENTH 

Have you no assurance that, earth at end, 
Wrong will prove right? Who made shall mend 
In higher sphere to which yearnings tend ? 

REPHAN 

DECEMBER TWENTIETH 

Better have failed in the high aim, as I, 
Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed. 

THE INN ALBUM 

DECEMBER TWENTY-FIRST 

No, I have light, nor fear the dark at all. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

DECEMBER TWENTY-SECOND 

I have lived, then, done and suffered. 
Loved and hated, learnt and taught. 

LA SAISIAZ 

DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD 

Such save the world which none but they could save. 
Yet think whate'er they did, that world could do. 



[ 74 ] 



DECEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH 

I never realised God's birth before — 
How he grew likest God in being born. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

DECEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH 

Festive bells— everywhere the Feast of the Babe; 
Joy upon earth, peace and good will to man. 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

DECEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH 

Firm like my first fad to stand on "God there is, 
and soul there is." 

LA SAISIAZ 

DECEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH 

For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave. 
The black minute 's at end. 

PROSPICE 

DECEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH 

A certain stage 
At least I reach, or dream I reach, where I discern 
Truer truths, laws behold more lawlike than we 
learn. 

DRAMATIC IDYLS 

DECEMBER TWENTY-NINTH 

He came but to forgive, and to bring to life: 
Doubt ye the force of Christmas on the soul ? 

THE RING AND THE BOOK 

[75 ] 



DECEMBER THIRTIETH 

For the journey is done and the summit attained, 
And the barriers fall. 

PROSPICE 

DECEMBER THIRTY-FIRST 

But deep within my heart of hearts there hid 

Ever the confidence, amends for all. 

That heaven repairs what wrong earth's journey 

did. 
When love from life-long exile comes at call. 

BIFURCATION 



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